Crowning achievement: How an Oklahoma nonprofit is changing the state of youth haircare

Emma Butler and Christy Horn were used to witnessing the needs of kids involved in the foster care and courts systems. Typically if a problem arose they could figure out a way to help the kids they serve.

For Butler working as a court appointed special advocate and being bi-racial, she'd had white foster and adoptive parents ask her how to care for the hair of Black infants placed in their care.

But one day when a little girl's photo revealed a major gap in resources, the two would step in to fill it by creating The Hair Initiative.

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"They said it had been a couple weeks since her hair was done, and by looking at the picture I could tell it had been longer than that and it was very glaringly a hygiene issue,” Butler said.

Butler asked who had been responsible for the child's hair and was told she'd simply been taken to a Black Department of Human Services worker. Butler said she was shocked that in 2018 that was the only available option so she began asking questions. She found that the caseworkers were not only doing the children's hair, but paying for the products, tools and services out of pocket.

While asking questions, Butler encountered Horn, herself a caseworker. Horn said that she recognized the problem as something she had previously been unaware existed.

“So many of my coworkers spend money and time to make sure that these kids have proper products and tools,” Horn said. “We kind of realized that there wasn't a resource and that there needed to be something.”

Filling an overlooked need

For most people living without textured hair, the differences required in caring for it never come to mind. Through The Hair Initiative they bring workshops to caretakers, providing that education. Attendees are taught basics including how often to wash textured hair, styling, tools and products to use and how to prevent damage.

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The duo quickly found children with textured hair and their caretakers needed this help. The women say that while they have watched foster and adoptive parents work to meet the needs of kids placed in their care, they noticed early on that not all caregivers have the same level of access.

"We've realized that parents in rural communities, even parents here in the metro, they didn't have access to education or to hair products and tools that were in their price range," Butler said. "So children’s hair hygiene needs were not being taken care of, and this was disproportionately affecting children of color."

Professional stylists lead the workshops and become additional resources for parents, with The Hair Initiative helping to offset hair care costs for families who need it. The workshops offer an opportunity to ask questions in an open forum and male and female hair kits are given out for each child in a household's care.

For parents who have attended the workshops, like Micah North and her husband, a white couple adopting a Black child, the nonprofit offered a "judgment free zone" for them to get answers. North said having a hands-on opportunity to learn about products, tools and general hair care helped calm some of the anxiety the couple was feeling.

“Knowing that you're going to have a child that does have textured hair, you already feel inadequate,” she said. "It just gives you confidence and peace of mind because whether they're biologically yours or not you want to do what's best for them, and you want them to have confidence."

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North said attending the workshop also provided a chance to connect with stylists, providing a continued support system for future questions and concerns.

Providing resources across the state

Butler said that while the original intent was providing resources to foster and adoptive parents, she and Horn quickly learned that caretakers came in a lot of other forms, leading the team to expand to other areas.

Less than a year into their work, attention turned to justice involved youth and how The Hair Initiative could help the Oklahoma County Juvenile Bureau. Starting with an extension of the same workshops and hair kits provided for foster and adoptive families, soon the programming evolved.

Erin McConnell, assistant facility administrator - operations for the Oklahoma County Juvenile Detention Center, said The Hair Initiative was soon donating products for young men and women that originally weren't being ordered. At the beginning of this year, Butler asked McConnell what other needs existed.

"We looked at some other donations, but I told her really what we were struggling with was getting consistent haircuts," McConnell said.

The barber contracted with the detention center previously was simply unable to fulfill their needs, she said. The Hair Inititative worked with them to secure contracting with both a barber and stylist. Weekly visits with the barber and stylist are provided for youth living in the detention center. Additionally, the nonprofit donated two barber chairs to the detention center.

“It's just been a blessing, as far as, I know the kids need that and it makes them kind of have a sense of normalcy and dignity,” she said.

The Hair Initiative also donated hair kits for a recent family night event the juvenile bureau did to prepare for back to school, according to Hajr Brown, chief of court services and Crystal Ramirez, community and program resources manager. These kits along with those regularly donated to stock the juvenile bureau's clothing closet also end up serving families beyond detention and court services.

“We have people from the community that come and are looking for additional resources,” Ramirez said. “We've been able to connect with them with certain youth that needed somebody to go to to fix their hair or comb their hair or get a cut, something like that.”

Growing the impact

Even through the pandemic the mission of The Hair Inititative has continued to spread. The nonprofit shifted gears hosting zoom workshops early in the pandemic and continues to socially distance in-person workshops for safety.

Butler said The Hair Initiative also donates products to SISU and other homeless shelters because the nonprofit discovered that people donate items they would typically purchase for themselves, leading many aid organizations to lack diverse and inclusive hair care. The Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma County also works with The Hair Initiative to hold a hair hygiene and braiding class that culminates in a hair show.

"Girls learning about their own natural hair, how to love and care for their own hair, and getting confidence out of that and then also showcasing creativity through hair has been really, really cool to see,” she said.

One thing Horn and Butler said they will continue to work toward is more access. Horn recounted a recent workshop in Owasso when in order to assemble hair kits, she had to visit multiple stores to find the needed supplies, eventually traveling to south Tulsa in order to get everything required.

“If you go to Walmart, their selection and their options for highly textured hair can vary. Owasso was a very small section, but then you hit South Tulsa and it was a huge aisle,” she said. “I can't imagine people in a small town in Chandler where that demographic is not going to be big, they may be having to drive even longer to get to those places."

To date, The Hair Initiative has reached families in 23 of Oklahoma's 77 counties. The founders say that's just the beginning and their hope is to reach all 77 counties by 2025.

Part of this goal also includes growing a network of stylists they will work with across the state to help caregivers by answering questions and providing services.

The pair also wants education to become standardized. Foster and adoptive parents and caseworkers are all required to attend specific trainings and the women hope that at some point the knowledge they're sharing with people will become a mandatory part of that training, which will allow more people to feel comfortable accepting any child into their home.

“We want to be proactive and preparing families for this,” Horn said. “I don't want it to be reactive because I can't tell you the number of foster parents who have said to us, ‘I wish I had this training in the beginning.’”

Butler and Horn also say they've realized their work is about more than just hair. Through their workshops they have seen communities engage in larger conversations about race, watched children's confidence flourish and opened doors.

"When we started this our only plan was to help this little girl on her case find a stylist, that was it," Horn said. “To look back and think all the things that we've done I'm still kind of in shock, but I know it's working, and I know this is a good thing.”

For more information on The Hair Initiative, visit their website at www.thehairinitiative.org.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma youth reap benefits of The Hair Initiative